Wilmington's bike trail a scenic and fun ride

The Cross City Trail, a Wilmington bike trail being built by the city, will eventually cover about 20 miles – from Halyburton Park to the beach.

By Brandon SneedStarNews Correspondent

The Cross City Trail, a Wilmington bike trail being built by the city, will eventually cover about 20 miles – from Halyburton Park to the beach. Right now, in chunks, it covers from Halyburton to Eastwood Road, where it dead-ends at Military Cutoff Road. It's a great trail, even in all of its unfinished chunky splendor. The asphalt is smooth, and makes for a tremendous ride. There are a couple spots here and there with scenery that will make you want to come back again and again. The technical starting point for now is Halyburton, but I rode it backwards. The route, not my bike. I live over by UNCW, and so I rode up to Randall and started from there. The first little loop around the pond was a beautiful start. I just stopped for a moment to look out over it before going on my way.There is a lot of good to be found on the Cross City Trail. Riding into the Halyburton woods was one of my favorite moments along the way. Like that spot, several others along the way are like vacuums, places you enter and, for a moment or two, the rest of the world disappears. It's just you and the whirring of tire against asphalt and trees. The most notably missing portions include the approach to Shipyard Blvd. and then later from Randall Parkway to Eastwood Road. To cross Shipyard, it's basically about waiting for five lanes of traffic to empty, then rushing across fast as you can. A quarter-mile or so down Independence Blvd. after crossing Shipyard, the trail picks up again, taking you almost to Empie Park. It runs out at Park Avenue, and again, it's about waiting for traffic to clear.Then it picks up outside Empie, and here you'll find the longest completed stretch: through Empie, across Wrightsville Avenue, down into a small neighborhood and then emerging at the pond on Randall Parkway. It runs out on Randall, although there are some narrow bike lanes to follow up Randall.From there, you're on your own to get to Eastwood. I recommend cutting through the University of North Carolina Wilmington's campus, taking a left on Racine Drive and then hoofing it all the way down there to Eastwood. The trail resumes on the corner of Eastwood and Cardinal Road; Racine will dump you out about a quarter-mile down from that.Crossing Wrightsville wasn't bad, and really, crossing Shipyard wasn't too bad either. Just make sure to wear a helmet. I've never been hit or in a wreck, but it's happened to plenty of people I know, so prepare for bad things so you can enjoy the heck out of the good things."We're happy to have completed as much as we have so far," said Amy Beatty, the Cross City Trail project manager. She said it's not possible to know when it'll be finished. "I've ridden portions ... and all of them have been very nice," said Craig Mann, president of Cape Fear Cyclists. When it's finished, it will start at Wade Park, down the road from Halyburton, and end down near Wrightsville Beach, just before the drawbridge. For a map, visit CapeFearCyclists.org. For more information, contact Beatty at 341-7800.